Against the backdrop of two climate crises — flooding and a five-year long drought —that have ravaged Kenya and the rest of the Horn of Africa, Nairobi hosts the first-ever Africa Climate Summit aiming to drive home the call for urgent action as climate disasters escalate in frequency and intensity.
Battered by climate change events too, Malawi is attending the summit, to be held from 4 to 6 September, to deliver a message on how nature and conservation are inherently intertwined with climate change, according to Minister of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Michael Usi.
Championed by Kenya’s president William Ruto and the African Union, the conference seeks to address the increasing exposure of Africa and the world to climate change and its associated costs.
Malawi goes to the conference while struggling to heal from the destruction inflicted by Cyclone Freddy.
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In March 2023, the tropical cyclone made a landfall in Malawi. Over three days of ceaseless downpour especially in the Southern Region resulted in rivers breaking their banks.
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Multiple mudslides and mass debris descended from mountains sweeping away villages and crops, causing injuries and killing over 1,000 people and livestock.
Usi said Malawi and the region are particularly being hit the hardest by climate change due to their reliance on agriculture, limited adaptive capacity and exposure to weather extremes.
He said the conference therefore provides a platform for Africa to promote sustainable development practices that balance economic growth with environmental preservation to mitigate adverse climate impacts.
He said Malawi will advance the cause for adoption of nature-based solutions among measures to tackle climate change effects.
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“These solutions not only store carbon and reduce emissions but also provide co-benefits such as improved air and water quality, enhanced ecosystem services, and support for local communities,” Usi told Malawi News.
He said Malawi is taking steps to conserve and restore ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, and coastal areas, which play a vital role in sequestering carbon and enhancing ecosystem resilience.
Malawi also expects this high-level meeting to facilitate strengthening of partnerships to enhance access to funding, technology and expertise for conservation.
According to Usi, collaborations can amplify the impact of conservation projects and ensure that Africa’s unique biodiversity is protected for future generations.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), a conservation organisation working in Malawi and other countries in Africa and around the world, describes the Nairobi summit as an opportunity to make a case for how climate change is devastating biodiversity and how biodiversity conservation can help tackle effects of climate change.
At the summit, Ifaw will showcase its Room to Roam initiative, an ambitious conservation agenda that promotes connectivity of aquatic and terrestrial habitats for wildlife and ensure that animals and communities co-exist and thrive.
Ifaw is implementing this initiative in the Malawi-Zambia landscape which involves Kasungu National Park and also in Lukusuzi and Luambe national parks in Zambia.
Under its USAID-funded, five-year ‘Combating Wildlife Crime’ project, Ifaw has helped to restore the three national parks from decades of degradation and rampant poaching.
The three national parks lie within the Malawi-Zambia Transfrontier Conservation Area.
Ifaw’s dream is to see animals and people thrive together in landscapes that face the threats of overutilisation of resources and climate change.
It says climate extremes are battering nature and conservation leading to massive die-offs of wildlife.
Further, increased vulnerability of local communities to extreme climate impacts is pushing them into heavy reliance on natural resources for survival, leading to over-exploitation.
Scientists have found that over-exploitation of natural resources is triggering and aggravating climate calamities such as floods.
Patricio Ndadzela, Director of Ifaw Malawi-Zambia, describes the summit as an opportunity for adoption of practical steps in mitigating climate change impacts.
He said while this is the first of its kind summit for Africa, it is not the first summit of this nature in the world.
“What has been lacking from those other summits are tangible outcomes on the commitments made to mitigate climate impacts.
“What we need now are practical steps on increased financing for the greening of the environment to mitigate climate change impacts and save biodiversity,” Ndadzela told Malawi News.
The summit will come up with a positon paper through which it pushes for global stocktake of climate commitments on biodiversity, livelihoods and energy systems.
The Africa Climate Summit comes almost two months before the COP28 to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The global climate conference will focus on energy transition, delivering on financing commitments made during previous conferences and putting people and biodiversity at the heart of climate action.
